A Stab at the Stag

I am truly loving the push of street art in the past few years over Atlanta, and the Living Walls Project has certainly been a forerunner in the advancement of that movement. This evening, I hope to make a pilgrimage around town to see what some of the artists who came into Atlanta created on the streets, here’s a map of all the places you can find their work (iffin you’re an Atlien, definitely go check out Sam Parker’s work:)

My One Eared Stag visit has come and gone, and there were some definite hits and misses to this new restaurant finding it’s feet.We arrived on the later side not entirely famished (leftovers are a good thing.) I like their smaller, streamlined wine list, and my associate and I both dining on fish settled on a fabulous pinot gris from Frois based out of Oregon (mmmmm, Oregon wines….) The vino had such a deep smokiness mingled so nicely with the crispness expected of the grape, very satisfying. We ordered a tapas, appetizer, and entree to split- the baby artichokes, mussels in sofrito, and Mediterranean sea bass special. I enjoyed my mussels quite a bit (and goodness, did I receive a lot of them…) and found a nice balance between their sweet, light meat and the fatty sofrito sauce (which is essentially a small dice on a vegetable assortment, and almost emulsifying them into an oil.) I’ll focus on the artichokes as a strong example of what to expect with this joint… The artichokes were not a hit for me, due to the very oily preparation, but I simply adored the pairings in the dish: baby artichokes set against fresh mint and pistachio. It was a lovely introduction to the stag concept- simple, bare ingredients amalgamated in manners you would not typically imagine but with a flavor that totally makes sense. I feel that if the execution was a little stronger, the dish would have been a home run.

My dining partner decided he probably would not return, but I have yet to excommunicate the establishment (and I’ll definitely be back to Holy Taco…. I wish I was there right now.) I want to wave my Phalen flag, and see Stag take off well. And now my stomach is a-grumblin’, I’ll hopefully upload some shots I took at One Eared Stag later today- clean, cool decorating motif.